_elisabelotti's review against another edition
5.0
"Uno può ricordare anche quello che ha letto come se lo avesse in qualche modo vissuto, e uno ha la storia degli uomini e tutto il mondo in sé, con la propria infanzia".
morgause's review against another edition
5.0
"Ma forse non ogni uomo è uomo; e non tutto il genere umano è genere umano. [...] Un uomo ride e un altro uomo piange. Tutti e due sono uomini; anche quello che ride è stato malato, è malato; eppure egli ride perché l'altro piange. Tutti e due sono uomini; anche quello che ride nella non speranza, lo vede che ride sui suoi giornali e manifesti di giornali, non va con lui che ride ma semmai piange, nella quiete, con l'altro che piange. Non ogni uomo è uomo, allora. Uno perseguita e uno è perseguitato; e genere umano non è tutto il genere umano, ma quello soltanto del perseguitato. Uccidete un uomo; egli sarà più uomo. E così è più uomo un malato, un affamato; è più genere umano il genere umano dei morti di fame"
100reads's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Enjoyed reading this book. Unique style of writing. Would reread. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
_uu_uu_uu_uu_uu_uu_x's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
thesongofbooks's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
rheanna's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
danpo's review against another edition
4.0
4.5/5
La genialità di Vittorini e in generale degli autori del '900 sta nel trovare espedienti letterari per evadere alla censura fascista cui andavano incontro. Tutti - o quasi - i personaggi sono da leggere in chiave simbolica dietro i quali si cela la feroce critica al fascismo. Per il carattere e lo stile del testo, la lettura senza le note o l'approfondimento è una lettura mozzata. Sicuramente uno dei miei preferiti di Vottorini, a pari merito con Uomini e No (forse un pelino più sopra).
La genialità di Vittorini e in generale degli autori del '900 sta nel trovare espedienti letterari per evadere alla censura fascista cui andavano incontro. Tutti - o quasi - i personaggi sono da leggere in chiave simbolica dietro i quali si cela la feroce critica al fascismo. Per il carattere e lo stile del testo, la lettura senza le note o l'approfondimento è una lettura mozzata. Sicuramente uno dei miei preferiti di Vottorini, a pari merito con Uomini e No (forse un pelino più sopra).
fil's review against another edition
4.0
Singularly... er, boring with a dash of mundane and a sprinkle of homeliness, set against a backdrop of something-wrong-in-the-world, the effect is quite unique.
I am at a loss the truly define it, nor do I really want to anyway. The conversations are of the everyday type, the meetings are uneventful, there is zero pizazz and very little humph! While reading it I was thinking along the line of ‘This kinda sucks! Why am I loving it?’.
Ummmm, ignore this review and read this beautiful story, toodles.
I am at a loss the truly define it, nor do I really want to anyway. The conversations are of the everyday type, the meetings are uneventful, there is zero pizazz and very little humph! While reading it I was thinking along the line of ‘This kinda sucks! Why am I loving it?’.
Ummmm, ignore this review and read this beautiful story, toodles.
gh7's review against another edition
4.0
This was written and published during the fascist era and therefore had to get by the stringent punitive censorship of the time. The irony is the book owes its form and much of its beauty to the imperative of eluding censorship. It wouldn't have been written in this form if not for censorship. A rare case of censorship doing the artist a massive favour. Compelling him to innovate and mask meaning with artful subtlety.
Because of the hugely overshadowing Nazi death camps history has turned into little more than a footnote what Mussolini did in Abyssinia in 1935. When, among other Italian atrocities, the Italian air force sprayed native villages with mustard gas. This book's starting point is probably the deep shame and disgust any decent human being would feel at this cowardly act done in the name of his country. It begins with the line, "That winter I was in the grip of abstract furies. I won't be more specific."
The narrator, on the spur of the moment, decides to visit his mother in Sicily who he hasn't seen for fourteen years. Elio Vittorini has a musical ear and his prose is incantatory with its beautiful refined repetitive rhythms. The journey undertaken by the narrator is as much a journey back in time as through space. His conversations like a dialogue with the deepest part of his being as well as with the land of his birth.
Unfortunately for me the beautiful mysterious spell it was casting fizzled out a bit in the last third when the narrator gets drunk and overly maudlin and then has a conversation with his dead brother. Nevertheless, a magical innovative book which artfully not only overcomes the obstacle of censorship but uses censorship as a kind of forge in which to craft the work.
Because of the hugely overshadowing Nazi death camps history has turned into little more than a footnote what Mussolini did in Abyssinia in 1935. When, among other Italian atrocities, the Italian air force sprayed native villages with mustard gas. This book's starting point is probably the deep shame and disgust any decent human being would feel at this cowardly act done in the name of his country. It begins with the line, "That winter I was in the grip of abstract furies. I won't be more specific."
The narrator, on the spur of the moment, decides to visit his mother in Sicily who he hasn't seen for fourteen years. Elio Vittorini has a musical ear and his prose is incantatory with its beautiful refined repetitive rhythms. The journey undertaken by the narrator is as much a journey back in time as through space. His conversations like a dialogue with the deepest part of his being as well as with the land of his birth.
Unfortunately for me the beautiful mysterious spell it was casting fizzled out a bit in the last third when the narrator gets drunk and overly maudlin and then has a conversation with his dead brother. Nevertheless, a magical innovative book which artfully not only overcomes the obstacle of censorship but uses censorship as a kind of forge in which to craft the work.